University of Arizona in the News

The University of Arizona is among the vanguard of higher education institutions in using a new model for teaching calculus to students in life sciences courses that focuses more strictly on math concepts and real-world biological questions, rather than on procedural rules for derivatives and integrals – which its advocates describe as a paradigm shift for calculus instruction.

University of Arizona director of adaptive athletics Peter Hughes is interviewed.

An unusual, dramatic surge in sea levels in the Gulf of Mexico, which began around 2010, could have added nearly five inches to the height of the devastating storm surge that Hurricane Idalia flung at the Florida coast last week. A more gradual sea level rise between 1939 and 2010 added an additional four more inches.

The hummingbird-sized white-lined sphinx moth is one of the most common moth species in North America, pollinating plants from southern Canada down to Central America. However, their population has declined over the last decade, mirroring an overall drop in insect populations according to Goggy Davidowitz, a professor of entomology at the University of Arizona who has been researching the species for 20 years. "In 2005, when we'd go out collecting the moths at night, we would easily get 200 to 300 white-lined moths," he said.

University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins created a commission to identify solutions to the challenges facing Arizona agriculture in a rapidly changing climate. The recommendations are outlined in a new report.

Chris Impey, a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, writes that with more countries landing on the Moon, people back on Earth will have to think about what happens to all the landers, waste and miscellaneous debris left on the lunar surface and in orbit.

University of Arizona associate professor of psychiatry Dr. Michael Grandner, director of the university's Sleep and Health Research Program, discusses the effects a lack of sleep has on human health, and the wider implications for economic activity.

University of Arizona professor of geography development and environment Jason Jurjevich recently unveiled a new interactive map that documents 56 years of race-based neighborhood covenants in the Tucson area. "It's been sobering," Jurjevich said. "I think what we're seeing in Tucson mirrors a lot of what we're seeing in other cities, in terms of the extent to which these were part of housing development."

A video posted to social media by a climate change skeptic with ties to the mining industry minimizes the significance of modern concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which stand at roughly 420 ppm as of last month. However, all 40 glacial cycles (i.e. "ice ages") over the last roughly 2.6 to 2.7 million years likely began with CO2 concentrations below that threshold, according to University of Arizona professor of hydrology and atmospheric science Marcus Lofverstrom.

As Hurricane Idalia charges toward Florida, one factor that could amplify its effects on coastal communities is the unusually warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, which is partly the result of the sultry weather that has been smothering the South all summer. "The element of having really warm waters in the Atlantic during an El Niño climate pattern, we haven't really seen that before, not to this extreme," said Kim Wood, an associate professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona.